Inside the DWWA 2016 winners' tasting...

Wine lovers pick their highlights from a tasting of medal winners in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2016, held at Vintners' Hall in central London.

Nearly 200 wine lovers descended on the historic Vintners’ Hall in London on Thursday 30 June to taste a hundreds of DWWA 2016 winners.

Wines on show included a full range of medals, from the highly coveted platinum ‘best in show’ award to platinum, gold, silver, bronze and commended.

See photo highlights below and comments from both wine lovers and producers who attended. Many of those present discovered new wines.

Steven Spurrier, Decanter consultant editor and chair of DWWA 2016, was among the guests. Image credit: Decanter / Leo Johnson.

Duncan Adam told Decanter.com at the tasting, ‘I’m a Decanter subscriber but this is my first time at one of the events. It’s a good place to try things I’ve never heard of or tasted before.

‘I also like being able to enjoy the wines without a price tag, as you can appreciate wines from an unbiased and personal perspective.’

Wines included winners in many different categories, giving consumers and the trade a wide variety of choice. Image credit: Decanter / Leo Johnson.

Eleanor Wilkinson, who began by tasting sparkling, white and rosé wines in the upstairs room at Vintners’ Hall, said, ‘My highlights have been Bodega Garzon’s Uruguayan Albariño for its fresh minerality with a little kick of spice. As well as the unfiltered white Tuscan from Fattoria La Vialla.

‘It was great to try wines which open doors to new knowledge and experiences.’

Making discoveries is what the DWWA tastings are all about. Image credit: Decanter / Leo Johnson

Robert Norton (not pictured) said, ‘The Massimo Rattalino’s Barolo was one of the nicest reds I’ve ever had, it’s great to be able to try wines before they’re available on the UK market.’

He also discovered the rising quality of English wines. ‘The Greyfriars Blanc de Blancs really surprised me, I was not expecting such an impressive wine from an English producer.’

Making new friends is all part of the Decanter tasting experience. Wine is social, after all. Image credit: Decanter / Leo Johnson.

Tom Saunter (not pictured above) told the Decanter.com team, ‘My friends and I have come up with some original tasting notes for the wines we’ve tried. The Pirie sparkling wine from Tasmania was enjoyably metallic, like carbonated liquid mercury.’

Many wine lovers and wine trade visitors enjoyed taking part in the WaterAid blind tasting game in the main hall. Decanter holds an auction of DWWA wines every year with Christie’s, and proceeds go to WaterAid. More than £500,000 has been raised in the past 10 years.

Wine trade visitors had their own session earlier in the day.

A big thank you to our sponsors, Belu and to Riedel, for supplying the water and wine glasses respectively for the DWWA 2016 winners’ tasting.

Reporting by Laura Seal & Eleanor Douglas and editing by Chris Mercer.